From 4 to 6 March 2026, the Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change” will hold a conference entitled “Digital Curating: Ethics of Access and Sustainability” (in English).
Venue: Lecture hall JO 1, Johannisstraße 4, 48143 Münster
Registration: If you would like to participate, please register by 15 February 2026 at kfg.zugang@uni-muenster.de.
Scientific Organisation: Renate Buschmann, Josina Dehn, Ursula Frohne
Programme: The programme will be available here shortly.
The international conference will address changes in curatorial practices in the wake of digital transformation and the resulting ethical, ecological and social challenges. Experts from museums, universities and cultural institutions will discuss how digital technologies are expanding access to cultural heritage, challenging existing hierarchies and enabling new forms of participatory knowledge production. The focus will be on questions of authenticity, representation and responsibility in dealing with digital artefacts, reproductions and virtual spaces. The possibilities and risks of artificial intelligence for curatorial processes and the ecological impact of digital infrastructures will also be addressed. The aim of the conference is to open up perspectives on sustainable and equitable cultural access in the digital age and to bring together the aesthetic, ethical and ecological dimensions of globally networked cultural practice.
Speakers
- Dr. Jörg Albrecht (Burg Hülshoff – Center for Literature, Münster, Germany)
- Dr. Hauke Behrendt (University of Stuttgart, Germany)
- Dominik Bönisch Alpári (University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf (MIREVI), Germany)
- Dr. Regine Ehleiter (Witten/Herdecke University, Germany)
- Dr. Chantal Eschenfelder (Städel Museum, Frankfurt a. M., Germany)
- Dr. Beatrice Fischer-Miersch (District Office Berlin Mitte, Department of Art, Culture and History / Postgraduate Program CAMPI)
- Alina Fuchte (Kunstpalast / NRW Forum Düsseldorf, Germany)
- Dr. Berit Hummel (University of Münster, Germany)
- Prof. Dr. Senka Ibrišimbegović (University of Sarajevo, Serbia)
- Prof. Dr. Jon Ippolito (University of Maine, USA)
- Prof. Dr. Sarah Kenderdine (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland)
- Dr. Michael Klipphahn-Karge (Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig, Germany)
- Francis Marshall (London Museum, United Kingdom)
- Marina Nething (Museum Ulm, Germany)
- PD Dr. Grischka Petri (FIZ Karlsruhe Leibniz Institute for Information Sciences, Germany)
- Prof. Dr. Marie-France Rafael (Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland)
- Prof. Dr. Reinold Schmücker (Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change”)
- Anna Sokolova (Artist, Düsseldorf, Germany)
- Prof. Dr. Magdalena Tyżlik-Carver (Aarhus University)
- Prof. Dr. Annette Urban (Ruhr University of Bochum, Germany)
- Prof. Dr. Beatrice von Bismarck (Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig, Germany)
Programme
Wednesday, 4 March 2026
1.00 pm
Welcome and Introduction
Renate Buschmann, Ursula Frohne, Josina Dehn
1st Panel: Collaborative curating in digital space
Chair: Renate Buschmann
1.15 pm
Curating with the Carrier Bag: Institutional Critique and Feminist Collectivity in the Digital Realm
Marie-France Rafael (Zurich University of the Arts)
2.00 pm
Changing Museums with Swarm Curation
Marina Nething (Museum Ulm) / Alina Fuchte (Kunstpalast / NRW Forum Düsseldorf)
2.45 pm
Coffee Break
Chair: Josina Dehn
3.15 pm
Droste Worlds: How Digital Technology is Opening New Memorial Space
Jörg Albrecht (Burg Hülshoff – Center for Literature)
4.00 pm
Reversal, retreat, restoration? Assessing access in a flooded zone
Grischka Petri (FIZ Karlsruhe Leibniz Institute for Information Sciences)
4.45 pm
Coffee Break
Keynote
Chair: Ursula Frohne
5.15 pm
A Labor of Doubt and Repair: Archives and Digital Curating
Beatrice von Bismarck (Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig)
7.00 pm
Dinner
Thursday, 5 March 2026
2nd Panel: Curatorial practice beyond physical spaces
Chair: Renate Buschmann
9.00 am
Artistic-Curatorial Practices of Virtual (Re)Construction
Annette Urban (Ruhr University of Bochum)
9.45 am
KINBURN: Insight-Specific Game
Anna Sokolova (Artist)
10.30 am
Coffee Break
Chair: Alina Selbach
11.00 am
Sculpture in the Expanded Field? Digital Access and Art in Public Space
Berit Hummel (University of Münster)
11.45 am
Curating the Digital Divide: Ethical Challenges of Cultural Participation in Digital Infrastructures
Hauke Behrendt (University of Stuttgart)
12.30 pm
Lunch
3rd Panel: Incorporating diversity and inclusion through digital media
Chair: Jolanda Saal
2.00 pm
Digital Queer Curating as a Practice of Transformation – Between Responsibility, Power and Collective Spaces
Beatrice Fischer-Miersch (District Office Berlin Mitte, Department of Art, Culture and History / Postgraduate Program CAMPI)
2.45 pm
Accessibility and Cultural Participation: The Städel Museum's Digital Strategy
Chantal Eschenfelder (Städel Museum)
3.30 pm
Virtual Present. Dreaming for the Future: Museum before Museum. Ars Aevi Sarajevo
Senka Ibrišimbegović (University of Sarajevo)
4.15 pm
Coffee Break
4th Panel: Sustainable dimensions in curatorial work – Part I
Chair: Ursula Frohne
4.45 pm
Temperature, Truth, and the Planetary Consequences of AI (via Zoom)
Jon Ippolito (University of Maine)
5.30 pm
Break
Keynote
Chair: Renate Buschmann
6.00 pm
Computational Museology: New Relations between Machine Intelligence, Synthetic Artefacts, and Embodied Aesthetics
Sarah Kenderdine (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)
7.30 pm
Get together – Wine & Cheese
Friday, 6 March 2026
4th Panel: Sustainable dimensions in curatorial work – Part II
Chair: Lisa-Maria Meier
9.00 am
Infrastructures of Digital Curating: Power, Platforms, and the Politics of Access
Regine Ehleiter (Witten/Herdecke University)
9.45 am
The Image as a Burden? Digitality after Sustainability
Michael Klipphahn-Karge (Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig)
10.30 am
Coffee Break
Chair: Bernadette Collenberg-Plotnikov
11.00 am
Immaterial Culture: Collecting digital ‘objects’ at London Museum
Francis Marshall (London Museum)
11.45 am
Training the Archiv: A Project Review and Lessons Learned
Dominik Bönisch Alpàri (University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf (MIREVI))
12.30 pm
Sustainable Curating: What it could mean
Reinold Schmücker (University of Münster)
1.15 pm
Lunch Snack
Keynote
Chair: Josina Dehn
2.15 pm
Fermenting Data and Curating Superintelligences: Sustainability and Access in the Posthuman World
Magdalena Tyżlik-Carver (Aarhus University)
3.45 pm
Concluding Remarks
4.15 pm
End of the Conference